by Lexie Davis
“I thought that necklace would look gorgeous on you.” He walked toward her and took it from her. After putting it around her neck, he examined it. “And I was right.”
“I just…” She glanced toward her sleeping son. “I don’t have anything for you. And you said it doesn’t matter, but it does. It matters.”
“All I want for Christmas is you.” He stared into her eyes. “Can I have that?”
She didn’t know what to say. His request didn’t feel like enough. She wasn’t anything special. But the kindness in his eyes told her something different. Despite everything, he made her feel special.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Okay then. You gave me the more expensive gift.”
Luna reached out to cup his cheek as she kissed him. The soft pressure of his lips made her melt into his embrace. How did she get so lucky? Not in a million years would she think that she could have one man to love her, much less two. But when Tom died, she questioned getting that dynamic back. When she saw Julian, things had changed. She’d experienced three men that loved her. She was the luckiest woman on earth.
“Open your other gift.” Julian held up the other bag.
She took it and peeked inside. Pulling out a sunglasses case, she smiled at him. “Misty told you about these, didn’t she?”
When they went shopping, she found a pair of sunglasses that she liked. The women tried to get her to buy them, but she knew she couldn’t afford them. So she left them at the store and walked away. Misty was the only one that knew about it, and she must have told Julian.
“I keep my sources confidential.” He scooted back in the bed.
She smiled. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He pulled the blankets over him. Luna stood and went across the room to her bag. She brought her pajamas and quickly changed into them before joining him again. “Are you happy?”
She smiled. “It’s been a long time since I could say this, but yes. It has nothing to do with the gifts either. I’m happy when I’m with you. You make Zane smile. Danny considers you his friend, which is nice. I wasn’t sure that he would have that again. I mean, he has friends, but it’s different.” She pulled the blankets around her. “You make me feel safe. That probably sounds weird. It’s not necessarily that I feel unsafe, but I don’t know. When I’m with you, I don’t have to worry about everything. It’s nice.”
Julian pulled her to him, whispering, “I love you.”
Luna lay there long after Julian fell asleep, thinking about how their life would be if he stayed there forever with them. He promised her a job working for him, so that meant no more working for the grocery store. She was fairly certain that her financial status would be better since he wouldn’t pay her some measly wage to support her family with. She also saw him being part of their unit. A family. He would travel with his work, but she could see him fitting in with everyday life. He’d probably take Zane on his days off. And at night when only the adults were awake, he and Danny would make her scream their names while they fucked her hard.
She wanted that. She wanted him in their lives.
The next morning, Zane woke her up by crawling in bed with her. “Where’s Daddy?”
She smiled at him. “He’ll be home soon.”
His lip pouted as tears filled his eyes. Luna sat up and hugged him. “It’s okay.” She kissed him. Reaching for her phone, she held him while she dialed Danny’s number. It went to voicemail. Frustrated, she sat her phone on the bed beside her and smiled at Zane.
“Guess who brought you gifts last night? Santa!”
He had no interest in Santa. He sobbed, with crocodile tears running down his cheeks. Each one broke Luna’s heart. Julian shifted beside her.
“I’m up.” He groaned and reached for Zane. “Come on. I’ve got you.”
She watched as Julian soothed the tears her son cried. He wiped them with his finger then kissed the little boy’s temple. Even Zane wanted them to be a family. He didn’t seem to miss anyone specifically when they were together, but the moment one of them stepped away, he cried for them. Part of her wondered if he thought they were never coming back.
Julian hugged Zane a moment, rubbing his back before he stood with him in his arms. “Merry Christmas, buddy. I love you.”
Zane wrapped his arms around Julian’s neck. “Daddy.”
“Come on. We’ll go see if we can find him.”
Luna grabbed her phone and walked with him out of the room and down the stairs. Danny promised to be back by morning, and she hadn’t heard anything from him. Brandon and Easton were up and smiling at them when they entered the kitchen.
“Is he tired?” Brandon asked, rubbing Zane’s back. “Good morning.”
“He misses Danny.” Julian kissed Zane’s head. “Are we doing Santa now?”
“Yeah. Let me get Misty and Rowdy.” Easton left the room.
“Have you heard from him?” Brandon asked Luna.
“No.” She brushed Zane’s hair from his eyes. “I called him a moment ago, and he didn’t answer. I don’t know what is going on.”
“He’s fine.” Julian turned slightly. “It’s a long drive to Houston. Trust me, I’ve done it. Plus, in some parts of Texas, cell reception is a joke.”
Luna nodded. “I just don’t want him to miss Christmas.”
“He won’t.” Julian pulled her to him and kissed her forehead. “Are you hungry? We can have breakfast before we do presents.”
“I don’t think he’s feeling it.” Brandon reached out to touch Zane’s forehead. “He feels warm. Maybe Easton needs to check him out.”
As if that were his cue to cry, Zane started sobbing in Julian’s arms. Luna sat her phone on the counter and lifted Zane into her arms. She checked his forehead and held him close. He had seemed fine the day before. How little bugs popped up overnight, she didn’t know.
“Come here.” She sat down with him on her lap. “Does something hurt?”
“Daddy,” he moaned.
Luna rubbed his back. Easton, Misty, and Rowdy joined them and immediately stopped when they saw Zane crying.
“What’s wrong?” Easton asked.
“He feels warm,” Brandon provided. “Check him out.”
He walked over to him and lifted Zane into his arms. “Come here.” He walked toward the mud room and grabbed his medical bag. Luna watched as he did a quick exam. “His ear is inflamed. He’ll probably need some antibiotics.”
Luna sagged. “Great.”
“Do you have anything?” Julian asked him.
“I may have something mild.” Easton handed him back to Julian. “I’ll go look.”
Misty frowned as she stroked Zane’s back. “Ah, buddy. I’m sorry you don’t feel well.”
Luna tried dialing Danny’s number again. This time he answered.
“Where are you?” she asked him.
“I’m heading back to Lucky now. I just left Houston.”
Luna pursed her lips. “Zane has ear inflammation. He’s not feeling all that well.”
“Do we need to take him to the doctor? Well, it would probably be ER since it’s Christmas. I can meet you there.”
“Easton is fixing him up.” She watched as he brought in a bottle of pink liquid medicine. “I think he’ll be okay.”
“Call me if anything changes.”
“I will.” Luna paused a moment. “Did everything go okay?”
“I’ll talk to you about that later.”
“Okay. I’ll see you when you get here. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
She hung up, and Easton handed her the medicine. “He’s not allergic to penicillin, is he?”
“No.”
“There you go then. I had some left over when I stocked up for the runs I’d been making to the school.”
“I thought EMTs only did emergency things.”
“Honey, I’m the closest thing to a doctor for several miles. I also transport to San Antonio. With special permiss
ion from the hospital, and extra training and certifications, I’m allowed to treat mild conditions. My actual training prepared me for a lot of this, but in normal circumstances we don’t use it. Where we live isn’t normal, so I use it more than the average person. I work under the physicians at the hospital though. I don’t go rogue, no matter what anyone thinks.”
“I told him he needed to go to med school,” Misty commented. “Lucky needs a doctor.”
“I would also have to move away for four to six years to get my degree, too,” Easton commented. “What we have works.”
After a breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit, they migrated to the living room where Misty and Luna took pictures of Zane’s happy little face when he saw the fire truck. He barely left Julian’s arms, not that she could blame him. Julian took him to the ride-along fire truck and put him in it.
“What do you think?”
He beamed. Julian showed him how it worked. Both Luna and Misty filmed him, smiling and laughing as he rode around the living room like a pro. Brandon helped to guide him through the furniture. She’d never seen her little boy so happy. They took pictures of him with his hat on, and Luna texted a few to Danny. She also texted the video she filmed.
“I think he likes it,” Julian commented. “We need to make a fire for you to put out, bud.”
“No we don’t,” Luna corrected. “Don’t teach him to play with fire.”
Julian laughed. “It actually has a tank that can hold water to squirt at stuff.”
“Oh, we’ve got to try that.” Brandon’s eyes lit up. “Why didn’t they have this kind of stuff when I was a kid?”
It was nearly noon before they finally made it back home. Zane had passed out for a nap, and Julian carried him inside to put him in his bed. Luna unloaded his SUV, carrying in all the gifts their friends had gotten them. It truly was a great Christmas. It would have been perfect, though, if Danny had been there.
“What am I going to do with all this stuff? He has a room full of toys. Now he has a living room and a bedroom full of toys.”
Julian smiled. “He’s well loved.”
Plopping down on the sofa, he lay back and closed his eyes. Luna glanced over at him, watching as he seemed to completely ignore the rest of the world.
“If you move to Lucky, are you planning to live with us?”
He smiled. “Do you want me to live with you?”
“Yes.”
“Then I guess I’ll be moving into the spare bedroom.”
She stood and went to him, sliding over him as she made herself comfortable. “I still get a job working for you, right?”
“Right.” He kept his eyes closed. “You’ll have the best boss in Lucky.”
She laid her head against his chest. “Do you want kids?”
“I already have one.” He kissed her forehead. “I guess Zane calling me Daddy isn’t so weird after all.”
She propped her chin on his chest. “Do you want more?”
He opened his eyes. “I’m not against the idea of it.”
“That was a thing we talked about—me, Danny, and Tom. When we decided to have Zane, I wanted to stay at home with him. I had it all planned out, too. I wanted three kids, two years apart. That didn’t really work out.”
“Is that what you wanted to be in life? A mom.”
“I did.” She nodded. “My family is not too supportive of that. My sisters are well-accomplished scientists, and I don’t even have a college degree. My dad is an electrical engineer with the army. My parents wanted each of us to do something great in this world. Having children is not necessarily a great accomplishment. Don’t get me wrong, my family loves my kid. We just butt heads about what is best for my life.”
“You didn’t want to be an engineer?” He grinned. “I could use a structural engineer at work. The one I have to pay right now is eating a hole in my profits.”
She smiled. “Your buildings would collapse if you depended on me as your engineer.”
“That’s not good.”
She laughed and laid her cheek against him. “I’m just not cut out for that. In low points in my life, I’ve tried to imagine what would have happened if I’d taken that route, and I don’t know. I think I would have been miserable.”
He kissed to the top of her head. “I like you just the way you are.”
They lay like that for a while. Luna didn’t know what time it was when Danny came in, but she pushed up from her spot on the couch and lifted herself off Julian.
“Hey,” she greeted him. “Merry Christmas.”
Danny sat his keys down on the counter. “Yeah. Merry Christmas.”
He looked completely distraught. She walked over to him and pulled him into her arms. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He kissed her cheek before pulling away. “I want to take a nap.”
“Come on.” She smiled at him. “I missed sleeping with you last night.”
He glanced over at a sleeping Julian. “He didn’t keep you entertained?”
“No. We’re in this relationship together. It’s not the same when you’re gone.”
She followed him down the hall and to their bedroom. He didn’t seem to be in a talking mood, so she climbed in the bed beside him, pulling him to her.
“I love you, Danny. Don’t ever think that will change.” She pressed her face against his neck. “Zane missed you. I missed you. Julian missed you.”
“I shouldn’t have even went.” He pulled away from her and rubbed his forehead. “My mom is not sick. At least not physically. They wanted me to come to Houston so they could serve me with papers. They’re suing us for custody of Zane. They’re proclaiming that our relationship deems us unfit parents.”
Luna’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Before you go crazy, we battled it out and they’re not coming for Zane. I told them that Tom was his biological parent.”
“That’s not true.”
“They don’t know that.” Danny stood and ran a hand over his face. “I’m filing a restraining order against them. It’s going to protect me, you, and Zane.”
She studied him. He wasn’t happy. She knew his mother caused him a lot of trouble. He worried about a lot, and she didn’t want him to worry about this.
“Danny?” She stood and walked over to him. “It’s okay. Nobody in this town is going to let anyone take him from us. And I know my parents will help us if we needed it. Don’t worry about this, especially right now. I love you, and it’s Christmas. There’s a little boy in there that has missed you. He cried on us twice while you were gone. He doesn’t feel good, and I think he wants you to cuddle with him like you always do when he’s not feeling great. Don’t let your mom ruin our Christmas.”
Danny nodded. “Yeah. I kind of want to just cuddle with him, too.”
He walked toward Zane’s room and crawled in the small bed with him. He wrapped his arms around the sleeping child, and Luna grabbed a blanket to cover him. She kissed them both before leaving.
Julian stood in the kitchen when she walked around the corner. “Danny’s home?”
“Yeah.” She sat on one of the bars stools. “His mother isn’t sick. She called him to Houston to serve him custody papers. She thinks that our relationship is wrong and that we’re unfit.”
“What?” Julian closed the refrigerator door.
“He says they battled it out and everything is okay, but he’s worried about it. He’s not in the best of moods, and right now he’s cuddling with Zane in his room.” She pulled her hair away from her face.
“I’ve seen a lot of custody battles in my life, and no judge is going to grant some random stranger custody of a child that way. Hell, my foster parents had to jump through hoops to get temporary guardianship when it was needed. It’s simply not that easy.”
She grabbed a tie from the counter and tightened it around her hair. “I know he’s worried about it.”
“Are you?” Julian asked her as he leaned over the counter in front of h
er.
“I don’t think so. I mean, my parents will help me if I asked them. I know they would. I’m pretty confident that everyone in Lucky would have something to say about it. I don’t know how far anyone’s power reaches, but Hunter knows a lot of people. Rowdy, too.”
“I do, too, FYI.”
“I didn’t mean to discredit you.” Luna shook her head. “Christmas was so nice yesterday, and now it’s all shot to hell.”
“Nobody is going to take Zane.” He sipped his drink. “I can promise that. And I didn’t say that because I thought you were ignoring me and my contributions. I just meant it as information.”
She watched as he walked around the counter to her. He kissed the top of her head. “Watch a movie with me.”
Luna let him lead her to the couch. Maybe some of the day could be salvaged by simply ignoring the rest of real life.
Chapter Eight
Danny woke from his nap and glanced around. He was scrunched in a toddler bed with the toddler rolling a fire truck along his arm and down the side of his body. He groaned and rubbed his eyes. Most of last night felt like a bad dream. He knew some part of him needed to get up and play with Zane since it was Christmas, but he didn’t feel like it.
“Daddy.” Zane handed him a fire truck.
He smiled at him and took it, rolling it on the small mattress space beside him. “Luna?”
It took her a few minutes to appear in the doorway. Julian was right behind her. “Yes?”
“I’m stuck.” He sat the toy down and lifted his hand. “I’m not joking. I can’t move.”
She laughed. “You should have slept in our bed.”
Julian moved into the room and grabbed Danny’s hand to pull him up. His shoulders ached and his neck had a crick. A monster of a headache pounded against his skull, and he wanted to lay back down almost immediately.
“You okay?” Julian asked, squeezing his shoulder.
“My head fucking hurts.”
Luna reached for Zane. “Come on. Let’s go in here.”
Julian held his hand out to pull Danny up. He stood and headed toward the door. He went to the hall bath and grabbed some aspirin from the medicine cabinet. After he poured two tablets in his hand, he headed toward the kitchen for something to drink.